Norwegian cross-country skier achieved unprecedented feat with victory in the 50km mass start
“I
’m starting to believe maybe he is a machine.” Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget was not alone in his assumption on the final weekend of an Olympics that has belonged to Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. Nyenget had as good a view as anyone of his fellow Norwegian’s sixth gold medal of the Games in the 50km mass start.
It was not until the final uphill slope that Klæbo landed the killer blow. Nyenget had stayed with him until then and admirably fended off a couple of attacks on the final lap of the 7.2km course. It was inevitable, though, that when push came to shove, Klæbo would find another gear. “It’s close to impossible to beat him in the finish,” said Nyenget, who could only laugh as crossed the line for silver and Emil Iversen completed a Norway one-two-three.
Nobody had won six gold medals at a Winter Olympics before this. Over the course of 14 days, across six events, he has skied 93.5km cross-country. But not for the first time, having swept all six events at last year’s world championships. His puffing competitors lined up to label him the greatest of all time in Tesero. “Johannes could probably have gone backwards faster than me up the last hill,” said Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave. And he finished sixth.
